Since the day after the Club Q shooting, I have been funneling my grief towards the thoughts I am sharing for the first time publicly here:
First off, a few relevant things:
I am a Colorado resident.
I stand firmly in support of the LGBTQIA community, and I am not a member of it.
I am not a lawyer, or particularly knowledgeable about the legal system.
Now my thoughts:
The recent shooting at Club Q was a hate crime.
But, was it first a self-hate crime?
Soon after the crime, word spread that the shooter is non-binary and uses they / them pronouns. When I first heard this, I thought it was the latest GOP smear attempt to diminish the horror of this event by demonizing the perpetrator.
But then I heard and confirmed that the source was the shooter’s self-appointed lawyers. My mind started to spin. Was this the first time they were safe to come out as non binary?
I don’t know the answer but I think the question is important.
From what I’ve read the shooter was born to parents who are very troubled and wounded. Their father was an adult film star and a Mormon who was quoted as saying “we don’t do gay”, and by some accounts was relieved his son was a murderer, not a gay person. Their mother has had repeated run-ins with law enforcement.
Of course, the shooter’s lawyers announcing that the shooter is non-binary could be an attempt at a defense. One their lawyers created to bolster their case that the crime was not a hate crime. The defense would go something like, it wasn’t a hate crime because our client identifies as part of that community.
But a few days later, a Walmart worker in Virginia killed several of his coworkers, a shift crew who by multiple accounts, considered each other family.
So people kill when they are part of a group.
People kill when they are not part of a group.
What if self-hate was recognized as an origin of hate?
What if a suspected hate crime had to also be investigated as a self-hate crime?
What would change legally?
Who would be held accountable then?
What other crimes could be looked at differently?
At in the case of the Q club shooting, could the many who fuel LGBTQIA hate through their words and actions be blamed?
Could the shooter’s parents be held responsible?
Could any of the over 240 laws passed this year alone be found responsible in a court? Laws like the new one in Texas that criminalizes gender affirming care and treat those who provide it as criminals? Or laws that question someone’s knowing about themselves by papering it over with false narratives that they’ve been groomed? Or that ban LGBTQIA affirming books or discussions for fear that someone will be groomed by them?
If gunmakers can be held accountable, why not lawmakers?